


Variantale: Snowfall, Chapter 5

by TychoAzrephet



Series: Variantale [5]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Insults, Magic, Multi, Snow, battle field, close to death, extended conflict, possible auditory hallucinations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 15:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10970214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TychoAzrephet/pseuds/TychoAzrephet
Summary: Sans rolls up his sleeves and goes mono a mono with Chara, like most of the events in his life however, things don't exactly pan out according to plan...





	Variantale: Snowfall, Chapter 5

**Author's Note:**

> Slight hiatus from posting these chapters, but we're back! In this installment we get back to basics with Sans deciding to forego his usual tactics and stepping toe to toe with Chara, I'm sure nothing will go awry. 
> 
> Also, at this point I'm up against the edge in terms of prewritten chapters, so I'm gonna have a lot of work to do for these last entries into Snowfall.(Sorry for this one being a bit shorter as a result.)We're fast approaching the end of the beginning, folks! Things are about to get mighty interesting. 
> 
> Hope yo enjoy reading, be sure to check out the previous chapters if you haven't already. :)
> 
> -Tycho

Sans lashed out with a series of explosive strikes, the initial impact against Chara’s jaw sent her reeling, barely able to keep her footing as Sans delivered critical blows to her joints. She lashed out wildly in an effort to fend off the attacks, but Sans simply grabbed her by the wrist and twisted sharply, Chara snarled in pain but her grip remained steadfast. With a swift pirouette she broke the skeletons hold and dashed backwards, eyes widening as Sans closed the distance instantly without teleporting, moving with a physical agility Chara would never have believed him capable of. 

The skeleton lunged forward with a snap kick to her kneecap, as Chara’s leg buckled and she started to crumple, Sans swung upwards with a punch just below her sternum. The human gasped and staggered backwards, falling into the snow to stare up into the shadowy sky above her in a bizarrely serene moment, panic immediately flaring as she saw Sans leap into view. He had summoned a blue attack into his right hand, the bone shaped glow and his searing arcane eyes the only visible parts of his silhouette as he plummeted downwards, icy gaze aimed directly at Chara’s throat. 

The human rolled to the left an instant before Sans landed, the impact sending gouts of snow upwards and showering back onto them, bone attacks digging deep into the ground where Chara’s chest had been. Chara steeled herself and retaliated, swiping outwards and cleaving the normal bone attack in two, causing Sans to snatch his hand away and surge to his feet. The human pressed her advance to keep him on the defensive, forcing the skeleton to dodge a whirlwind of chops and stabs, his expression flat and eyes pulsating as he moved. Sans kept up his avoidance routine patiently and observantly, ducking and sidestepping each wild slice whistling within inches of his bones, waiting for Chara’s movements to show evidence of frustration. Sure enough, he caught the embers of anger and exasperation burn within those sanguine eyes, abruptly breaking her pattern of swings by feigning towards his right side before driving straight for his chest. 

Sans countered by promptly teleporting adjacent to her, holding out his blue attack at stomach level, and allowing her to simply stumble forward through the bone of crackling energy. Chara growled as she felt the sinisterly cold, almost electric magic rent through the core of her being, whipping herself around with a rage induced slash just as Sans warped out of reach. Before the human could mount a further attack, Sans decided to go back on the offensive, snapping his right hand outwards and splaying his fingers as his eye flared cobalt blue. A relatively small blaster materialized in front of his hand, instantly discharging a shaped short range explosion, flinging Chara backwards several yards to land bodily onto the frozen ground.  

Chara laid sprawled out on the harsh stretch of ice, one hand clutched tightly over the smoldering wound in her chest, feebly keeping the knife pressed against her arm as she heard Sans’ footfalls growing ominously closer. They stopped just as an emaciated shadow crossed over her, Chara shut her eyes tight and inhaled shudderingly, ignoring the searing pain eating into her as she consolidated all of the determination she could muster. As she heard Sans take a breath to speak, Chara launched herself upwards and brought her knife down with blistering force, eyes blazing solid red and mouth twisted into a beastial snarl. Within that split second she was unable to register Sans’ hand moving, but suddenly her devastating attack was forced to a dead stop, the jarring impact sending shudders down her arm and nearly dislocating her shoulder. The roaring, primeval energy within Chara was nullified as she felt cold skeletal fingers curl around her own, narrowed eyes drawn shakily to look at the knife clutched in her hand. Sans had indeed blocked her explosive assault...by driving his hand upwards as she’d brought the knife down, the blade pierced clean through his palm as he held Chara’s grip in his grasp. 

A trickle of blood traced its way down his arm and began to drip steadily unto the ground, driven snow stained a dull red as metal wrenched within Sans’ grizzly wound, Chara and the skeleton locking gazes yet again as they stood toe to toe. Chara had seen Sans bleed more times than she could recall, but the strike had always been fatal, an injury that’d shattered his veneer of nonchalance and left him sobered in his final moment. Now, as she looked into Sans’ hollowed sockets, she could see the struggle to hold himself together while his smile remained chillingly unchanged. Sans cleared his throat with a labored, strangled noise, fingers tightening painfully around Chara’s as he spoke. 

“F o r...t h e...r e c o r d...I was...just gonna make a joke...about your failed...ice skating career.” he said haltingly, each syllable punctuated with a pained, shallow intake of breath. Chara blinked, nonplussed, hardly able to believe Sans was still standing and able to maintain his humourous facade. Her eyes flicked rapidly between the knife grappled between them, Sans’ vacant eyes glaring into her, and his free hand clenched so tightly his ashen knuckles creaked audibly. She couldn’t release her grip on her weapon even if she wanted to, and moving her other hand away from the scorch wound over her soul would leave her in blinding agony, she could only hope to drag out the stalemate for a while longer. 

“Hhhrr...hhee...h-how...how the hell...are you still alive?  It’s only supposed to take...one hit.” Chara asked, panting short gasps of air between words, each breath deepening the ache in her chest. Sans began to tremble slightly as he held Chara in place, feeling himself begin to slip as his soul writhed behind his ribcage, already flakes of dust were starting to peel off his bones and fall to the ground alongside the snow drifting hazily around them. He ground his jaw into a even toothier grin, fighting desperately against the creeping spread of death, his left eye sputtering a pale blue glow as he willed his essence to endure and persist. 

“Heh...hrrh...haha...heh,‘tis but a...flesh wound! Heheh...didja really t-think...I’d bite it that easy...after all it t-took to...track you down? No...no dice, princess.” Sans growled in reply, words hitching in his throat as crippling pulses wracked him, slowly sinking lower into the snow as his stance began to falter. Chara picked up on his weakening state instantly, her grimace of pain insidiously shifting into an impossibly wide smirk, eyes twinkling red as she pushed her knife downwards with renewed vigor. Sans sharply inhaled through his teeth, pupils shrinking to pinpricks of distant light as the human forced him to the ground, pain slowly stripping him of strength as his knees folded beneath him. A harrowingly familiar sensation gripped him, he could feel the very particles of his being shiver and start to dissolve, the only thing binding his body together was the magic seeping rapidly from his soul. Chara let out a short, scathing chuckle, closer to how she might have actually laughed when she had been fully alive. 

“Oh Sans, a comedian to the bitter end, it’d be inspiring if you weren’t leaving such a pathetic legacy. Ten years of hunting, ten years in exile away from all the monsters you could’ve helped, and for what? Just admit it to yourself already. You came out here to die, why else would you’ve picked a fight with Frisk in the first place? You could’ve killed them the moment you saw them, whipped up a fleet of Blasters and ZAP.  That’s all she wrote, but no, you chose to go through with the whole charade like you always did. Keeping Frisk alive knowing they couldn’t give you what you wanted, beating them down waiting for me  to take over...the only person capable of putting you out of your misery.”  Chara’s voice was coated in a ghastly approximation of gentleness, her grin flashing teeth as she watched Sans deteriorate before her eyes, the skeleton skittering on the edge of complete disintegration as he glared silently up at her. Chara carefully pulled her hand away from the charred wound in her chest, the tender smile she had fashioned slipping briefly, returning as she slowly extended her hand and rested it against Sans’ skull. The skeleton flinched and tried to pull away, but it was taking every ounce of his concentration just to stay conscious, he could only watch through shuddering vision as Chara traced a finger along the cracks beneath his eye. “You’re in pain, Sans, you’ve always been in pain. You might not believe it, but I understand that pain, to be caught in between life and death. It’s a waking hell, knowing you can never escape, never be...at peace again.” Chara sighed, for a fleeting moment there was something genuine in her voice, something empathetic and human. It vanished as she gazed deeply into Sans’ sockets, eyes burning bright red and sadistic smile spread ear to ear, twisting her blade to further gouge Sans’ wound. “It’s too late for me, but there is a way for you to end the pain, Sans. Just. Give. Up.”  She whispered, punctuating each word with an additional rotation of the knife, hands gripping tightly at Sans’ fingers and face, urging him to surrender. 

Sans barely registered the knife shifting and grating against his bones, barely felt the human’s fingers pressing against his fractures, all sensation had blurred into a dull pulse that matched his feathering soul. Some small, tired part of his mind, a part that bore the weight of his tragically long life agreed with what Chara was saying. He was in pain, more pain than he could ever hope to quantify, and he did want it to stop. Sans’ eyelids began to sink, or perhaps his skull itself was melting under the intense magical pressure, either way his vision was narrowing to darkness. 

As his perceptions started to fade, a faint glimmer of light caught Sans’ attention, a vibrantly crimson glow emanating from underneath Chara’s burnt wound. It piqued his curiosity, but any effort to move seemed futile, his struggle was becoming pointless. Sans exhaled shakily, his skull tilting forward to hang against his chest, that rapid pulse slowing as his soul entered free fall. Then, strangely, he felt...hands placed on his shoulders. He could still feel Chara’s fingers pressed against his faltering body, and the grip on his shoulder blades was...comforting. They seemed bizarrely familiar, the feelings of loss and lonesomeness that plagued him were dispelled, and as Sans’ descent was brought to a standstill...he heard a voice echo through his soul. 

“SANS...YOU CAN’T GIVE UP NOW...YOU’VE COME SO FAR. YOU HAVE THE POWER TO OVERCOME THIS...TO TAKE AWAY WHAT SUSTAINS THEM. PLEASE, I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT...I BELIEVE IN YOU...BROTHER.”  

Sans’ eyes opened wide as energy bolstered his soul, magic erupting and spilling over his crumbling bones, the sound of Papyrus’ voice ringing clear within his skull. To hear his brother speak again, whether it really was from beyond the grave or if he’d finally gone insane, Sans couldn’t care less. A few joyous, copious tears fell from his sockets, a true smile stretching back across his face. Sans dug his heels into the frost and forced himself to his feet, raising his skull to see Chara’s shocked and enraged expression, turning his focus to the sanguine aura radiating from the center of her chest. Frisk’s soul, visibly glowing under possession by Chara, Sans abruptly realized his attack had almost completely scorched away the layers of flesh and muscle that’d kept it obscured. He could feel the energy leaking out into the frigid air, the abscess of determination keeping Chara in control, sustaining her indomitable will...a sinister smirk slowly crept along the skeletons non-existence lips.


End file.
